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Nearly two weeks ago, ESPN President John Skipper shocked the media world by suddenly resigning from his position at the “Worldwide Leader.”

At the time, Skipper said he needed to resign to deal with substance abuse issues.

In a statement, Skipper said:

I have struggled for many years with a substance addiction. I have decided that the most important thing I can do right now is to take care of my problem.

I have disclosed that decision to the company, and we mutually agreed that it was appropriate that I resign. I will always appreciate the human understanding and warmth that Bob (Iger) displayed here and always.

I come to this public disclosure with embarrassment, trepidation and a feeling of having let others I care about down.

As I deal with this issue and what it means to me and my family, I ask for appropriate privacy and a little understanding.

To my colleagues at ESPN, it has been a privilege. I take great pride in your accomplishments and have complete confidence in your collective ability to continue ESPN’s success.

This explanation seemed rather suspicious. Since Skipper had just signed a major contract extension the month before his resignation.

At the time, Breitbart Sports noted:

The timing of Skipper’s resignation seems a bit of a mystery. Skipper had just signed a multi-year contract extension in November. How does one develop a long-term substance problem in a month? Perhaps ESPN just became aware of Skipper’s issue in the last month, though, that too would seem unlikely. Moreover, it’s likely that ESPN would at least attempt to offer some kind of counseling as opposed to compelling Skipper to resign, if they just found out about Skipper’s issue after signing him to a brand new deal.

Could there be something another, bigger story behind this announcement?

Well, Clay Travis of Fox Sports Radio and Outkick the Coverage reports that there is something bigger indeed, behind Skipper’s resignation. Travis reports that in the days following Skipper’s announcement, several reports came to him offering a much different explanation for Skipper’s immediate departure.

“In the next couple of days I was told by multiple sources I trust inside ESPN that the reason for Skipper’s “resignation” was because of sexual harassment issues inside the company. In the wake of the Boston Globe story about sexual harassment I was told Skipper’s own issues suddenly emerged and that was why the resignation happened so abruptly.

And ESPN decided to blame substance abuse issues instead.”

Travis also poked a hole in Skipper/ESPN’s “substance abuse” claim by tweeting photos from a tipster, which appear to show Skipper and ESPN radio host Dan LeBatard at a bar in North Carolina:

A trip out to have a couple of drinks with your friend would all be perfectly normal and a total non-story except for the fact that Skipper just resigned from ESPN 11 days ago citing his struggles with substance addiction and his desire to get help for that addiction.

Now maybe Skipper wasn’t addicted to alcohol — and it was some other drug instead — but if you have such an issue with substance addiction that you need to immediately resign from ESPN should you really be out drinking 11 days later with one of the most prominent employees at your former company? And if you’re Skipper’s good friend, Dan LeBatard, would you let your friend go out drinking with you if you knew he had a true issue with substance abuse and you were crying about it on your radio show 11 days ago?

That seems highly unlikely.

That does indeed seem unlikely. ESPN wouldn’t be unique among major media and entertainment organizations, for forcing out high-profile executives or performers over sexual harassment charges. After all, the last few months have seen dozens of actors, journalists, comedians, politicians, and others, face removal for some form of sexual misconduct.

So why lie about it? If in fact, ESPN is lying about the reasons for Skipper’s resignation?

The answer may be found higher up the food chain. Disney CEO Bob Iger is a rumored2020 Democrat presidential candidate. Considering how crucial the female vote is, especially in a Democratic primary, one would think that Iger would move aggressively to quash any potentially damaging sexual harassment scandal at one of his larger networks.

Would Iger engage in that type of politically-calculated micromanagement?

Well, he’s done it before.

In the weeks after Jemele Hill called President Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter, Iger personally intervened to prevent Hill’s suspension. Now, why would Iger do that?

Could it be because of Iger’s concern that the optics of suspending Hill, who is black, for criticizing President Trump; could be interpreted as Iger siding with Trump against a black female employee? Which would leave his Democrat primary opponents with a strong and heavy argument that he’s not the right candidate to protect black people from the “cruel and racist” Republicans?

That seems like an extremely plausible theory.

And if that seems like a plausible theory, is it so far-fetched that Iger would concoct a story about substance abuse to conceal a high-profile sexual harassment scandal, which may or may not extend far beyond John Skipper?

The Senate passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut early in the early hours of Wednesday

Vote was along strict party lines. Only GOP Sen. John McCain was absent

The House earlier passed the tax cut by a vote of 227-203 but two provisions fell foul of parliamentary test meaning they have to vote again on Wednesday

President Donald Trump fired off a pair of tweets in the morning

Mike Pence described it as a ‘historic win for the American people’

The Senate passed the GOP’s $1.5 trillion tax cut early Wednesday morning, leaving just one technical hurdle and President Trump’s signature as the final steps before the president’s top legislative priority becomes reality.

There was little last-minute drama in the Senate where the final tally was 51-48 – hardly different from the original version that cleared the Senate earlier this month.

Not a single Democrat voted for it, just as none in the House voted for a similar bill earlier on Tuesday.

Moments after the measure passed, Trump was quick to voice his approval and said if the House succeeds in a final re-vote Wednesday morning, there will be a White House news conference at 1:00 p.m.

‘The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill,’ he tweeted just after 1:00 in the morning. ‘Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote.’

House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted: ‘Great news. The Senate just passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. After years of work, we are going to enact the most sweeping, pro-growth overhaul of our tax code in a generation.’

A wave of protesters provided one of the biggest bursts of emotion. One small group yelled out ‘Kill the bill, don’t kill us!’ as the final vote was being taken.

‘The Sergeant at Arms will restore order in the gallery,’ said Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the chamber.

Pence’s appearance was a flourish that put him in the spotlight – though party leaders knew in advance his potential tie-breaking vote was not needed.

One protester yelled at GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, ‘Have you no shame?’

Flake voted for the bill, weeks after warning colleagues against complicity with Trump.

If we can’t sell this to the American people I think we ought to go into another line of work

Before the vote, as the debate stretched toward midnight, Pence tweeted out a photo of himself huddling with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn.

The House still had to sort through one legislative hiccup – after Democrats raised a procedural objection to minor provisions in the bill that the Senate parliamentarian ruled were not allowable.

The parliamentary ruling, which was sustained after Republicans failed to strike it down, requires the House to re-vote Wednesday morning so that the House and Senate versions are identical and President Trump can sign it.

‘After eight straight years of slow growth and under-performance, America is ready to take off,’ said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky at a press conference after passage.

Asked about a need to ‘sell’ the bill, McConnell said: ‘If we can’t sell this to the American people I think we ought to go into another line of work.’

Ryan made the rounds on Wednesday morning’s TV shows, saying on CBS that Democratic detractors predicting tax increases for the middle class are dead wrong.

‘When people see their paychecks getting bigger in February because withholding tables have adjusted to reflect their tax cuts, when businesses are keeping more of what they earn, when they can write off their expensing and investment in their businesses, and hire more people, that’s going to change its popularity. I am convinced,’ he said.

‘So I think there’s just tons of confusion out there as to what this does or doesn’t do. A lot of people think it’s going to raise their taxes, when every income tax group on average gets a tax cut. So the proof is in the pudding, and I think the results will speak for themselves.’

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, the top Democrat in the upper chamber of Congress, ripped the measure as as ‘sloppy’ and ‘as partisan as the process used to draft it.’

He warned his colleagues: ‘Vote no. Otherwise, I believe the entire Republican Party, and each of you, will come to rue this day.’

Schumer called for order during his floor speech and barked at colleagues who were talking rather than listening.

‘This is serious stuff. We believe you’re messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes,’ the New York Democrat grumbled.

Another Democrat, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, said Wednesday morning on CNN that while ‘a few people are going to get some crumbs’ in the form of tax relief, ‘the wealthiest people in the country are going to get all of the benefits here.’

‘It is going to be a great Christmas for the big corporations who are sitting on more cash than they’ve ever had in their lives,’ he groused.

Wavering senators removed most of the drama Tuesday night by announcing their support in advance. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who Trump mocked as ‘little Bob’ during an earlier feud, flipped from opposing the earlier version to supporting the final conference report that cleared the Senate Tuesday night.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also tipped her hand hours before the vote, saying she would back the bill.

Sen. John McCain, who provided a dramatic thumbs-down to the GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill months ago, is recovering at home from his treatment for brain cancer and didn’t vote Tuesday night.

He had announced his backing for an earlier version of the tax cut.

The hours-long debate Tuesday was mostly kabuki theater.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch bemoaned the lack of Democratic support – although leaders decided to move the bill through procedures that allowed them to circumvent Democrats and pass it by a simple majority vote.

‘Where is this bipartisanship that this country desperately needs?’ asked Hatch. ‘Our tax policy is for the birds,’ he added.

Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon called the final bill an ‘abomination’ as well as ‘the biggest bank heist – not just in American history but in the history of the world.’

As the hours drew on, senators continued to inveigh one way or the other to a mostly empty chamber but with an eye toward C-Span and cable audiences.

‘Not a single Democrat would break from party discipline,’ complained Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. ‘Why? Because they are so united in their rage at President Trump,’ the president’s former primary rival said.

He said families would see benefits in their pay stubs within weeks.

Democrats saw their hopes dashed of scoring another dramatic defeat of a GOP initiative, after seeing the Obamacare repeal tank earlier this year.

With passage all but assured, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the leading Democrat on the Finance Committee, turned his focus to future battles, warning Americans that Republicans would be ‘coming for your Social Security and Medicare before you take you Christmas tree down.’

Now, all that is left for the House to do is vote again following an earlier technical parliamentary error.

Speaker Ryan, who earlier said ‘this is a day I’ve been looking forward to for a long time’, will get to relive his dream Wednesday, because a few minor provisions in the House bill were out of order.

That would require another procedural motion to ensure both chambers are passing identical measures.

In that case, the House would meet at 9am Wednesday and then vote.

The rule prevents certain types of legislating in what is nominally a revenue bill – crammed into a special procedure that only requires a simple majority to pass to avoid having to negotiate with Democrats.

There are a ‘couple little glitches,’ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News Tuesday night, but they are only ‘minor adjustments.’

One of the out-of-order provisions lets people save in tax-deferred 529 plans to home school their kids, Politico reported. Another may deal with a college’s exemption from an endowment tax.

It is up to Democrats or any senator to raise an objection to force a ruling.

A Senate leadership aide downplayed the hiccup in the final stretch.

‘No one’s fault. They’re tiny provisions that don’t affect the overall bill. These small provisions were all that Dems could find. The House will pass again,’ the aide said.

An amendment by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made it into the final conference report, allowing parents to withdraw up to $10,000 from tax-deferred 529 college savings plans for home schooling their kids at a younger age.

The plans could now be used for K-12 elementary and secondary tuition, including for home-schooling.

Aides were still scrambling to figure out how the technical ruling would affect the legislation.

Cruz touted the amendment on his Senate and campaign web site.

‘By expanding choice for parents and opportunities for children, we have prioritized the education of the next generation of Americans,’ Cruz said on the Senate floor when the amendment passed on a tie vote with an assist from Vice President Mike Pence.

A Senate GOP aide told DailyMail.com the only portion likely to be knocked out involved home schooling – not the bulk of the amendment for the first time making 529s eligible for K-12 schools including private or parochial schools.

In states that define home-schooling as a type of private school, it is possible that funding could still be eligible.

In another blow, of the PR variety, Senate Democrats objected to the pleasing name Republicans attached to the bill, the so-called short title, the ‘The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act.’

WHAT’S IN THE FINAL TAX BILL?

Top income tax bracket has dropped to 37 per cent from 39.6 per cent

Other brackets are zero, 12, 22, 24, 32 and 35 per cent

‘Standard’ deduction for non-itemizers nearly doubles

Interest is deductible only on the first $750,000 of new home mortgages

Only individuals making more than $500,000 and couples earning $600,000 are in the top bracket

Corporate tax rates drop from 35 per cent to 21 per cent

Deduction for medical expenses and student loan interest and an exemption for graduate school tuition waivers

Ends Obamacare tax penalty for failing to buy health insurance

Doubles child tax credit to $2,000 for families earning up to $400,000

$1,400 of child credit is refundable even for families that don’t pay any income tax

Doubles estate tax exemption to the first $11.2 million of inheritances

Opens a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling

‘Pass-through’ corporations can deduct 20 per cent of income

Elimination of corporate Alternative Minimum Tax

No repeal of Johnson Amendment barring churches and religious organizations from election activity

Cardinal Bernard Law, symbol of church sex abuse scandal, dead at 86

Cardinal Bernard Law, the former Boston archbishop who resigned in disgrace during the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, has died, the Vatican confirmed. He was 86.

Law died in Rome, where he had served as archpriest of the Papal Liberian Basilica of St. Mary Major after he was forced to resign in 2002 as archbishop of Boston.

Law’s name became emblematic of the scandal that continues to trouble the church and its followers around the globe after it was revealed the he and other bishops before him had covered for pedophile priests in the Boston Archdiocese.

Law at the time apologized during a news conference to victims of abuse by a priest, John Geoghan, who had been moved from parish to parish, despite Law’s knowledge of his abuse of young boys. Law insisted Geoghan’s abuse was in the past.

Cardinal Bernard Francis Law looks on as Pope Francis celebrates Mass in 2016 in Vatican City.

Geoghan was eventually convicted of indecent assault and battery on a 10-year-old boy.

Law never faced criminal sanctions for his role in allowing abusive priests to remain in church parishes. The scandal reverberated through the church, exposing similar allegations worldwide that compromised its moral authority and led to years of multimillion-dollar settlements.

The Vatican early Wednesday issued a one-line news release, reading, “Cardinal Bernard Law died early this morning after a long illness.”

Survivors recount betrayal

To his detractors, Law’s second career at the Vatican was a slap in the face to victims of church sex abuse, one that further undermined the church’s legitimacy.

“Survivors of child sexual assault in Boston, who were first betrayed by Law’s cover-up of sex crimes and then doubly betrayed by his subsequent promotion to Rome, were those most hurt,” according to a statement after his death from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “No words can convey the pain these survivors and their loved ones suffered.”

The group advised the Vatican to keep the abuse survivors in mind when planning Law’s funeral. It asked: “Every single Catholic should ask Pope Francis and the Vatican why. Why Law’s life was so celebrated when Boston’s clergy sex abuse survivors suffered so greatly? Why was Law promoted when Boston’s Catholic children were sexually abused, ignored, and pushed aside time and time again?”

Law’s successor as Boston’s archbishop, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, said Wednesday that Law “served at a time when the church failed seriously in its responsibilities to provide pastoral care for her people, and with tragic outcomes failed to care for the children of our parish communities.”

“I recognize that Cardinal Law’s passing brings forth a wide range of emotions on the part of many people. I am particularly cognizant of all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy, whose lives were so seriously impacted by those crimes, and their families and loved ones,” O’Malley said.

“To those men and women,” O’Malley added, “I offer my sincere apologies for the harm they suffered, my continued prayers and my promise that the archdiocese will support them in their effort to achieve healing.”

Widespread child abuse by the Catholic clergy in the Boston Archdiocese was uncovered by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative reporting team, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its efforts. A big-screen dramatization of the team’s investigation in the 2015 movie, “Spotlight,” won the 2016 Best Picture Academy Award, bringing the story to a much wider audience.

Rise of Boston’s spiritual leader

Law was born in Torreon, Mexico, on November 4, 1931, to Helen and Bernard Law, an Air Force colonel. He completed his postgraduate studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Louisiana and at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. He was ordained as a priest on May 21, 1961, in the diocese of Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi, and became vicar general of that diocese in 1971.

In 1973, he was appointed bishop of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese in southern Missouri. He served as chair of the Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interracial Affairs, and in 1976, he was named to the Vatican Commission on Religious Relations with Jews.

The posts were stepping stones to his becoming the spiritual leader of Boston’s large and influential Catholic community. In 1984, Pope John Paul II appointed Law to be the archbishop of the Boston Archdiocese, with its 362 parishes serving 2.1 million members. That same year, Law received a letter from a bishop expressing concerns about then-Rev. Geoghan. Law assigned Geoghan to another parish despite the allegations.

In 1985, Pope John Paul II elevated Law to cardinal, one of just 13 Americans holding that office at the time.

Calls for resignation

Law attempted to resign as Archbishop of Boston in April 2002, but Pope John Paul II rejected his request. In 2002, a judge presiding over the child rape case of Rev. Paul Shanley ordered Cardinal Law to be deposed by lawyers of one of Shanley’s victims.

Law testified about his supervision of Geoghan in 2002, saying he relied on his assistants to investigate charges of abuse. In May 2002, he apologized for his role in the clergy abuse scandal in a letter distributed throughout the archdiocese. But he denied knowledge of sexual abuse allegations against Shanley until 1993.

In August 2002, Law appeared in court to testify about a settlement reached between the archdiocese of Boston and victims of clergy abuse. The archdiocese rescinded the monetary offer shortly afterward.

That December, as calls grew for him to resign, Law was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigating “possible criminal violations by church officials who supervised priests accused of sexually abusing children.” Days later, he resigned as chairman of the board of trustees of the Catholic University of America, followed by his resignation as archbishop of Boston.

Catholic Church abuses under scrutiny

The breakdown of trust in the Catholic Church continues to reverberate around the world.

This month, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse delivered, after five years of work, 189 recommendations to address what it described as a “serious failure” by Australia’s institutions to protect its most vulnerable citizens.

The country’s senior Catholic leaders, however, rejected recommendations by the wide-reaching investigation, declining to end mandatory celibacy for priests and break the secrecy of confession.

Of survivors who reported abuse in a religious institution, more than 60% said it occurred in a Catholic organization, the report found.

I’m sure Allah told this idiot to blow up infidels right? He was a LONE WOLF I’M SURE!

The terror suspect who allegedly attempted to detonate a suicide-bomb in New York came to the United States from Bangladesh as a “chain migration” relative of an individual who had immigrated earlier into the United States.
In October, President Donald Trump called for an end to this “chain migration” process in his immigration principles.

On Monday 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, a Bangladesh national, injured three individuals when he allegedly tried to detonate a suicide bomb in New York City in a planned terrorist attack.

Ullah, as confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), entered the U.S. in 2011 as a chain migrant.

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Under “chain migration,” new immigrants to the U.S. are allowed to bring an unlimited number of poorly-screened foreign relatives with them, creating a never-ending flow of immigration from some terror-ridden countries.

Ullah came to the U.S. through the F43 visa, allowing him to obtain a Green Card simply because his father’s brother or sister had recently been naturalized as a U.S. citizen. This process is known as “extended-family chain migration.”

Tyler Q. Houlton
✔
@SpoxDHS
.@DHSgov can confirm that the suspect was admitted to the United States after presenting a passport displaying an F43 family immigrant visa in 2011. The suspect is a Lawful Permanent Resident from Bangladesh who benefited from extended family chain migration.

NYC Scanner
@NYScanner
JUST IN: 27 y/o Terrorist who is from Bangladesh and was living in Brooklyn, told authorities “They’ve been bombing in my country and I wanted to do damage here, Terrorist was also a cab driver.

Fox News
✔
@FoxNews
.@POTUS: “Chain migration is a disaster for this country, and it’s horrible.” | Catch the full interview TONIGHT at 10p ET on @FoxNews.

6:30 PM – Nov 2, 2017
129 129 Replies 563 563 Retweets 1,745 1,745 likes
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As Breitbart News reported, more than 140,000 Bangladeshi nationals — larger than the population of Dayton, Ohio — have entered the United States since 2005 for no other reason than to reunite with extended family members.

8,508 Bangladeshi nationals entered U.S. in 2005 as chain migrants
9,936 entered in 2006
7,765 entered in 2007
7,795 entered in 2008
12,974 entered in 2009
11,407 entered in 2010
13,136 entered in 2011
13,379 entered in 2012
11,346 entered in 2013
14,170 entered in 2014
13,034 entered in 2015
18,051 entered in 2016
Since 2005, 141,501 Bangladeshi nationals have entered U.S. as chain migrants
This is the second time in three months that a foreign-born suspected terrorist entered the U.S. through an immigration program that Trump has called for the end to.

Another suspected ISIS-inspired New York City terrorist, Uzbek national 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov who is accused of murdering at least eight individuals, entered the U.S. in 2010 by winning one of the 50,000 visas randomly allotted every year under the Diversity Visa Lottery.

The Visa Lottery dolls out 50,000 visas annually to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries. The countries include those with terrorist problems, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.

Trump most recently slammed the visa lottery, saying:

We want a system that is merit-based. They come in on merit, they don’t come in on a lottery system. How about the lottery system? Folks did you see that? That’s the guy in New York City. The lottery system where they put names in a bin… so what they do, I would say but more than just say, they take their worst and they put them in the bin and then when they pick the lottery, they have the real worst in their hands… and we end up getting them.

No more lottery system. We’re going to end that. We’ve already started the process.

We want people coming into our country who love our people, support our economy and embrace our values. It’s time to get our priorities straight.

About 9.3 million foreign nationals have come to the U.S. as chain migrants between 2005 and 2016, Breitbart News reported. In that same time period, a total of 13.06 million foreign nationals have entered the U.S. through the legal immigration system, as every seven out of 10 new arrivals come to the country for nothing other than family reunification.

This makes chain migration the largest driver of immigration to the U.S. — making up more than 70 percent — with every two new arrivals bringing seven foreign relatives with them.

Currently, only one in 15 foreign nationals admitted to the U.S. come to the country based on skills and employment purposes. Though roughly 150,000 employment-based Green Cards are allotted every year, half of those Green Cards actually go to the foreign relatives of employees.

Since 2005, the U.S. admitted 80,252 chain migrants from Iran, despite the nation being listed by the U.S. State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.

Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court will take up one of the most momentous cases of the term on Tuesday as it considers arguments from a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake to celebrate a same-sex couple’s marriage because he believes that God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman.

The case pits the religious liberty claims of Jack Phillips, who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop, against the couple, David Mullins and Charlie Craig, who say Phillips’ actions amount to discrimination.

Some spectators and place holders began waiting in line last Friday to secure one of the rare seats open to the public in the majestic court room.

LGBT rights advocates fear that if the Supreme Court ultimately sides with Phillips, it will diminish its landmark opinion from two years ago that cleared the way for same-sex marriage nationwide. Both sides agree that a ruling in favor of Phillips would also open the door to claims from others who engage in professional services — florists, for example — to claim that their religious liberty exempts them from public accommodation laws applicable to other businesses.

It was back in 1993 that Phillips opened the bakery, knowing at the outset that there would be certain cakes he would decline to make in order to abide by his religious beliefs. “I didn’t want to use my artistic talents to create something that went against my Christian faith,” he said in an interview, noting that he has also declined to make cakes to celebrate Halloween.

Flash forward to 2012, when same-sex marriage was not yet legal in Colorado, but two men walked into the bakery.

“The conversation was fairly short,” Philips remembered. “I went over and greeted them. We sat down at the desk where I had my wedding books open.”

The men told Phillips they wanted a cake to celebrate their planned wedding, which would be performed in another state. Phillips said he knew right away that he couldn’t create the product they were looking for without violating his faith.

“The Bible says, ‘In the beginning there was male and female,'” Phillips said. He offered to make any other baked goods for the men.

“At which point they both stormed out and left,” he said.

The couple filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which ruled in their favor, citing a state anti-discrimination law. Phillips took his case to the Colorado Court of Appeals, arguing that requiring him to provide a wedding cake for the couple violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion. The court held that the state anti-discrimination law was neutral and generally applicable and did not compel Masterpiece to “support or endorse any particular religious view.” It simply prohibited Phillips from discriminating against potential customers on account of their sexual orientation.

Phillips then took his case to the Supreme Court and the justices agreed to take it up after mulling it for several weeks.

In court papers, Kristen K. Waggoner, a lawyer from the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who is representing Phillips, argued that the First Amendment guarantees him the right to decline to make wedding cakes that celebrate marriages that are in conflict with his religious beliefs. She said that Phillips is protected by two parts of the First Amendment: its protections of religious exercise and free speech. While she argued that the free exercise clause forbids the commission from targeting Phillips “and like-minded believers for punishment,” she reserved the bulk of her brief for the free speech clause, perhaps targeting potential swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has at times shown an expansive view of free speech.

Waggoner argued that a person viewing one of Phillips’ custom wedding cakes — his “artistic expression” — would “understand that it celebrates and expresses support for the couple’s marriage.” She said the Supreme Court’s compelled speech doctrine “forbids the commission from demanding that artists design custom expression that conveys ideas they deem objectionable.”

In the interview, Phillips said, “I feel I’m being compelled to create artwork for an event — an inherently religious event — that goes against my faith, and I’m being compelled to do so under penalty of jail time and fines.”

Not surprisingly, Mullins and Craig see the case through an entirely different lens: discrimination.

“This case is about more than us, and it’s not about cakes,” Mullins said in an interview. “It’s about the right of gay people to receive equal service.”

“This isn’t about artistic expression,” said Craig. “I don’t feel like we asked for a piece of art, or for him to make a statement, we simply asked him for a cake, and he denied that to us simply because of who we are.”

The couple is being represented in court by the American Civil Liberties Union.

“In essence, the bakery seeks a constitutional right to hang a sign in its shop window proclaiming, ‘Wedding Cakes for Heterosexuals Only,'” the ACLU’s David D. Cole wrote in court briefs.

Cole said that whether a cake is an artistic expression is not at issue. “The question, rather, is whether the Constitution grants businesses open to the public the right to violate laws against discrimination in the commercial marketplace if the business happens to sell an artistic product.” The answer, Cole contends, is “no.”

Twenty other states and the District of Columbia likewise expressly prohibit places of public accommodation from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Trump administration sides with Phillips in the case, arguing that it falls “within the small set of applications of content-neutral laws that merit heightened scrutiny” from the courts. “A custom wedding cake is not an ordinary baked good; its function is more communicative and artistic than utilitarian,” Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued. “Accordingly, the government may not enact content-based laws commanding a speaker to engage in protected expression: An artist cannot be forced to paint, a musician cannot be forced to play, and a poet cannot be forced to write.”

But the government lawyers did draw a line when it comes to race, arguing that laws targeting race-based discrimination may survive heightened First Amendment scrutiny in part because racial bias “is a familiar and recurring evil that poses unique historical, constitutional and institutional concerns.”

US families urged to leave military bases near Seoul amid fears North Korea WAR ‘close’

FAMILIES of US military should leave South Korea because war between America and Pyongyang is “getting close”, according to a senior US Senator and ex-Air Force Colonel.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has warned that the rising tensions between the the US and Kim Jong-un’s corrupt regime means preparations for war need to be taken.

The member of the Senate Armed Services Committee warned the US was “running out of time” to prepare itself for war when speaking on CBS yesterday.

He said: “I want the Pentagon to stop sending dependents and I think it’s now time to start moving American dependents out of South Korea.

“We’re getting close to a military conflict because North Korea is marching toward marrying up the technology of an ICBM with a nuclear weapon on top that can not only get to America, but deliver the weapon.

“We’re running out of time.”

Fears of war between the two countries hit a new high last week after the rogue state announced they had successfully tested a missile capable of targeting any part of the US equipped with a nuclear weapon.

The launch ended over 60 days of silence from North Korea’s missile programme after regular missile tests paused in September.

According to South Korea’s military, the latest missile flew some 596 miles (960km) to an altitude of around 2,796 miles (4,500km).

Following the launch Hawaii began immediate test to prepare for a nuclear strike.

Authorities on the island began to test a wailing siren, which represents an emergency, for a minute on Friday.

It was the first nuclear attack warning siren tested in the state since the Cold War.

Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency administrator Vern Miyagi said: “Hawaii is a likely target because we’re closer to North Korea than most of the continental United States…

“As we track the news and see tests, both missile launches, and nuclear tests, it’s the elephant in the room.”

Mr Graham’s calls for families to be evacuated from South Korea comes after White House national security adviser HR McMaster warned on Saturday that the issue of North Korea was close to reaching a climax.

Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California he said: “I think it’s increasing every day, which means that we are in a race, really, we are in a race to be able to solve this problem.”

Addressing the UN in September he referred to Kim Jong-un as “rocket man on a mission” and has said that seeking a diplomatic solution is a “waste of time”.

Addressing South Korea’s National Assembly in October the US President also said America would “not be intimidated” by Kim Jong-un’s rhetoric.

He warned in his speech that he had the “three largest aircraft carriers in the world are appropriately positioned” to face Pyongyang.